the specific story of hurricane sandy which obviously affected millions of people and really caught the public's imaginationment but it didn't end. coverage of other hurricanes h there is a beginning, a middle and an end. the fact is what sandy did or seems to have done is to take the idea of climate change from an abstraction, something that scientists and experts debated, to something that millions of people along the east coast and in manhattan and staten island and the other boroughs in new york city experienced for themselves and it started a debate. we don't know obviously what the long-term consequences are, but it does suggest there is something different about this story and its long-term implications. >> woodruff: and it's interesting, michael, because we've had big storms in this country before. >> sure. >> woodruff: but there was something different about this one? >> i think people are getting a little more alert to it politically. and one thing that historians of the future do is if something terrible happens, if climate change over the next 50 years or so achieve great in